Discovering Flight
by TheManWhoCan
Summary: The technology of flight has been lost to the ages, but one day a boy named Naruto rediscovers it. This is a chronicle of his struggle to use this technology for good, and in turn discover what good is.
1. Chapter 1

To whom it may concern:

I do not claim ownership to any of the intellectual property of Masashi Kishimoto. Note that US copyright law declares fanfiction to be a derivative work where the content of the writer is protected should its originality be sufficient. I know my originality is more than sufficient. Should you however feel offended by the use of this work, I will be amiable to remove it. I request that you contact me should you require this. Please note that this message applies to all chapters of this work.

-The Writer

~Preface~

Idly he wondered why no one had ever tried it before. The clouds towered above, hiding secrets untold to man. The contraption he was dragging behind, a bird-shaped mass of wood and cloth, was likened to a bird only in the greatest stretch of imagination, yet it was adequate for the "flight."

The boy, smaller than the contraption, though not by much, had a dumb smile on his face. This could not go wrong, at least more than it already had. It was a bright idea upon the wrong person at the wrong time. The extent of technology, closed circuit televisions and radios, implied an advanced industrial society, but the arcane devices were always assembled by artisan electricians, and factories and mass-production were nowhere to be found. Technology never seemed to progress, only regress.

Of course, there were inventions. New ways of killing in the ever-elongating wars that rip smaller countries to shreds and larger countries weather at the cost of entire generations of men, and, recently, women. Perhaps the nature of the Elemental countries begat the incessant focus of the intelligent on how to better kill the dredges that form the armies of Daimyos' wars.

Perhaps such a war-like society would generate pacifistic sentiments, but it seemed that even the forces of heaven wanted war. In times of peace, enormous demons would stalk the land, perhaps in coincidence, requiring an everlasting military presence. The professional soldier, known as a Knight in western culture, lives in combat called a Samurai, or Ninja, eliminating the common footsoldier from larger wars. Perhaps these days were simpler, where if there wasn't a fight, the necessary military made one.

The average human, a poor sustenance farmer on the outskirts of the larger countries, often suffered the most from conflicts. Their lands ravaged on any occasion of war, the outer area of a country never had the economic integrity to construct infrastructure, and never could dig themselves out of the hole of poverty.

Seemingly strait out of modern ones, cities in the Elemental countries were often of skyscrapers and steel giants that are never built; only kept, the ability to build them long gone. Cities built by average humans tended to be of wood and paper, and they made up the majority of housing, even if radios and closed-circuit televisions can be made.

One can conclude, from all this, that the Elemental countries were a land once touched by great technologies and knowledge, now lost to the ages, the proponents of which now make meager livings as artisans due to incessant conflict. Flight, the pinnacle of the human experience, allowing for Globalization, may have never been discovered, or perhaps it was lost among the ages, until one boy had an idea.

Thus, the boy made it to the top of the hill. The clouds, not an inch closer than from the bottom, floated effortless seemingly mocking him. The sun shone higher in the sky than when he had begun his trek, and now he stood on top of the hill, positioning his "bird" so its wheels would lead it downhill to gain momentum until it hit the ramp he had placed at the bottom. The ramp would launch it in the air, where it would allow him to fly and meet the clouds.

The contraption swiveled out of control before it even got to the ramp, crashing into a tree and falling to pieces. The boy later blamed his crying fit on the fact that everyone in his "village" seemingly dislikes him. Moving on.

The boy's life would be a fight for this gift, perhaps to unify the world in the glory of flight, or maybe to, like his father, destroy an entire generation of men with a new facet of weaponry. Perhaps the fight is not in the gift of flight, but the confliction between its uses.

From that I bid thee to judge what ye will upon the actions of this boy, for his story is one much told that perhaps, with the wisdom of a new age we can dissect for the true knowledge he holds, and cast away the accursed mask assaulting our minds.

~Age 10~

_Today is the day_ he thought as he jostled in his seat. _This time it will work. I know it._

The words around him didn't matter. Someone was talking to him, though they might as well been talking to a brick wall, for he wasn't paying much attention.

_A few hours and I'll be flying._

As the flustered teacher walked away, Naruto Uzumaki mulled over his predicament. _First I have to go home and dump this stuff, then get everything ready._

Today for him marked the culmination of ten years' worth of his effort (he was 10 now). With luck today he would finally fly. Of course, it isn't the only time his efforts have culminated. Without success, the boy known as Naruto has launched flying machine after flying machine off of the Hokage Mountain. Not in the direction of the village, of course; the mountain has other cliff faces miles from the city.

Getting there after this much practice shouldn't be a problem. It didn't take the young Uzumaki long to learn that he wasn't allowed out of the city. Why, he didn't know, but a long time ago he found a way out; a series of tunnels near and inside the Hokage Mountain and going under and away from Konoha. The junction of these tunnels was conveniently spacious for his projects.

Here he planned to go after his confounded classes finally ended. 'Home' he called it, because he moved his workshop out of his apartment a long time ago. The apartment now is only what he calls 'a place to crash,' and indeed he crashes a lot.

Eventually class ended and he traveled quickly to his apartment to drop off his books and academy supplies. Kunai, Shuriken, these tools did not interest him, nor did the life of a Shinobi. He didn't remember life before the academy, and whenever he confronted the teachers about why he was there, they would only mutter about "the Hokage's orders" and return to what they were doing. He showed up, of course. When he failed to, the ninja in the masks came and took him back. Sometimes they would even stay there to make sure he was in class.

These tools hastily discarded, he changed out of his ninja fatigues (consisting of a black shirt and black pants) into his flight suit. A garish, orange ordeal, the "flight suit" he wore was not the most practical garment at all. His love for it seems to be held by himself alone. He does not wear it to class, however. He only wears it when he plans to fly.

The city passes him by with disdain: a thing he never truly bothered to understand. It was always that way. There were of course periods where this caused him tremendous angst, but he got over it. It is hard to live like that, he would conclude, full of hate and enmity for all those around him. It is easier to live in apathy, living away from people, immersed in that which he loved: flying.

A smile grew on his face. The thought of flying makes him happy. He is by no means unemotional, as his relationship with people might suggest. He is perfectly happy to live alone. Yes. Perfectly happy. His smile disappeared.

He reached the tunnel entrance, girding himself for potential failure. He always failed, but his strength is not in success, but dogged perseverance. This time, maybe things would be different.

The tunnels twisted and turned going down in a combination only he had memorized. Eventually he entered a large room. The Junction, he called it. A cavern with a high ceiling perhaps fifty meters up, this room had become Naruto's home away from home. In various corners, there was storage of food and supplies, a bedroom and bathroom (installing plumbing was hard, but he wasn't going to build a latrine), a power generator, and a junkyard for all his failed machines.

In the center of it all was the workshop. Chalkboards with schematics arranged in a semi-circle surrounding his latest contraption. A few spacious work tables finished the rest of the circle, and tools and parts littered the ground. The flying machine was the latest on the line of ever-failing devices.

This machine might be different, however, because it had a different design from the "bird" design that he usually used. He had experimented with paper airplanes and wooden designs that would fly, and discovered that making the wings larger didn't significantly help it stay in flight, which led to Naruto examining the shape of bird's wings. This led to no significant discovery, but this specific design incorporated a differently shaped wing: one that inadvertently utilizes the aviation principle now known as lift.

Its wings aside, its cockpit was minimalist: a board with a strap. Turning would come later. Crawl before you walk, as they say. Its back extended into a tailfin of sorts. A board jutted up from the back to stabilize its flight.

He didn't understand that shaping a wing to force air particles above it to move faster than those below would cause high pressure under the wing, pushing it up. The science was beyond him. He didn't have a proper education, as no ninja would. Who need smarts to fight? Besides, the concepts of aeronautics were lost to the ages with the great crumbling cities. The chance of discovering the key to flight off of trial and error alone was one in a million, but time and time again Naruto would prove those odds were perfect for him.

He began to roll his contraption through the tunnels. Instead of the rough rocky floor, the floor was wooden panels he had laid to allow transportation. The machine rolled the path all its predecessors had before. It was hard work pushing it up. He had worked up a sweat and was breathing hard when it finally reached the top of the Hokage mount. He overlooked a different cliff face than where the faces were carved. This one had a track built into it, hidden as well as Naruto could have managed with foliage. No one really came up here anyway. Even the Hidden Leaf Village had its blindspot.

He set the contraption on the track. Getting the machine to go straight down and launch itself into the air was something he had perfected long ago. Now the issue was preventing it from going straight up and then straight down.

He stepped onto the contraption. He kicked off and the machine began to roll in its tracks. He strapped himself in, a giddy smile on his face. Despite his dark mood, flying was a rush of joy. And adrenaline. As the contraption accelerated towards the ground, the ramp approached. Then it was on the ramp, then it was in the air.

Instead of falling strait down in an arc, the plane flew up in a way right out of its occupant's fantasies. When it reached the peak of its arc, it glided through the clouds faster than Naruto has ever seen any ninja run. The wind forced him to squint. Luckily he had his flight goggles. He put them on.

He yelled in joy. Few miles away, all could hear a distinct "Yeah!" Unfortunately vocalizing at that speed and height was very difficult.

He reached up to touch the clouds. They weren't solid, to his disappointment. He tried to swallow part of one. It tasted like steam, which is to say nothing. Then the machine went into a cloud, and emerged wet. It began its downward arc slowly, gliding down to sullen earth. It was a majestic descent, but as he got closer to the ground he realized just how fast he was going. An impact would be painful, if not deadly.

Luckily Konoha is blessed with an abundance of leaves and branches. Naruto's flight was slowed to manageable speeds as his machine sped, snapping branches and sending leaves flying, towards a tree. With a wise bit of foresight, Naruto jumped off the contraption before it made impact. With a terrible crack the flying machine struck the tree and became splinters and scrap. With a sigh of relief and a tired laugh, Naruto landed harmlessly on the grass.

"I can fly!" He remarked to himself.

~To Be Continued~

A/N:

As I try hard to conform to the writing styles and rules of fanfiction while actually bringing meaning in a story to the table, I humbly ask that any reader who has enjoyed the previous work to review. I will answer any reviewer's questions in the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

~Age 12~

The age of graduation was twelve and a half, exactly half of the age of 25 where the cerebral cortex matures fully and humans are completely ready to make full decisions. To ninja, to grow up is not to age, but to kill. Naruto did not understand the implications of this. No one did in that time.

Today was the day for his graduation. Everyone was exited; which is to say, everyone besides Naruto was exited. Like always he was sitting in his corner notebook in hand, drawing the latest schematic for his machine. He had come a long way.

He was able now to fly for a good deal longer than before, but could not work out any method of propulsion that suited his needs for a light weight system. He also still needed a metal that was light enough to build the machine out of without weighing it down. With these thoughts in his head, he had completely forgotten about graduation.

He noticed first his class' excitement. Kids jumping in their seats. He did this occasionally, but wasn't nearly exited enough to do so now. Finally he asked a girl next to him.

"Hey, Ino-san, right? What's the big deal?"

The girl was thin. So much so that looking at her gave him the chills. Certainly packaged ramen was not the best nutrition, but the endless diets these girls put themselves through are not healthy surely. She had bleached blond hair, and bleached skin. Everything about her was bleached, including her personality.

"Its graduation day! How could you have forgotten? Anyway, there's a test. I only hope I can impress Sas-"

He stopped listening around there.

He laid back, wondering what would happen to him. He had never bothered to master the Bushin No Jutsu, so if they wanted a clone, they would be sorely disappointed. One kid went up, performed a henge, got his headband, and took a seat.

_What luck!_ He thought. Then quickly he wondered why he cared. He didn't want to involve himself in this ninja business, right?

He busied himself with his notebook, but could not discard his interest in this day's class.

Sasuke approached the front of the classroom, henged into Iruka, henged back. He used to be a show-off. Then something happened, that Naruto never bothered to figure out. He changed. Now he spends his time alone, 'Brooding,' which has only made him more popular to the girls. He didn't seem to enjoy it. Naruto wondered why. He would enjoy it.

Finally, Naruto was called up.

"Naruto-san, you'll have to perform a Henge No Jutsu to graduate. Can you transform into me?" Iruka said, conflicted as always. The man was tied between approaching Naruto and befriending him, and keeping away and respecting the boy's solitude. He used the honorific to seem nice, but he got the feeling that it made no difference.

Naruto stood there, thinking quickly back to his practice sessions years ago with this jutsu, brainstorming, his calm demeanor disappearing quickly.

He made a sign with his hands, pushed his energy into them, and expelled it into an image in his mind's eye. He did his best to project that image around himself, and a cloud of smoke extruded from his flesh. As it cleared, he breathed a sigh of relief as he looked down to see Iruka's body and not his own.

"Well done Naruto-san, you pass." Iruka said as he held out a gleaming hitai-ate, identical to the one he himself wore around his head. The forehead protector shone in the light as Naruto put it on, the etched leaf symbol telling the entire world what military had claimed his life.

He sat back down, returning to his notebook. He told himself that he didn't care, but that lie was getting harder and harder to believe. His achievement made him happy, like flying. To not get attached was impossible.

Minutes later, the test was over. Students were sitting in their seats, and Iruka was talking to some Jônin. He turned to the class.

"Everybody settle down. We're going to assign you to teams." He said as the class erupted in conversation and chaos. Iruka stood there for a moment, yelling for them to quiet down before he looked at the Jônin next to him.

The said Jônin quietly said, "Quiet." The class quickly turned and stared at the man, who wore a bandanna over his head. Smiling, he looked back at Iruka.

"My thanks, Ibiki-san. Now, these teams will comprise of 3 students and a Jônin Sensei. The Jônin will guide you through missions of increasing difficulty until you are ready to take the Chunin tests. You've read all about this, so I won't bother lecturing on it. Now, I'll read out the teams… lets see... team 1…"

Naruto just waited for his name.

"…team 7, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha, Jônin Kakashi Hatake… team 8…"

During the announcement, he saw Sakura's disappointment with being teamed with him, then joy with being teamed with Sasuke. He imagined that this would be a summary of their relationship as a team. Sasuke, after hearing his team, sunk his head into his high collar and closed his eyes, no doubt making that dreaded 'hn' sound he made when they sparred and he beat Naruto with his eyes practically closed.

"… and those are the teams! Wait here for your Jônin sensei to pick you up." Iruka said as he retreated from the classroom.

They waited. And waited. And waited. After three hours, and everybody besides them leaving, they were still waiting for their Jônin sensei. Naruto was busy drawing up a whole new schematic. Sakura was cycling between looking at Sasuke, blushing, looking at the door, turning red in anger, looking down, sighing, and looking at Sasuke. Sasuke was quietly sitting at his desk, still covered mostly by that high collar of his.

Sakura was a girl that Naruto pitied. She ate little, staring at Sasuke like every girl her age instead. If he was a parent, surely he would do better than to let his daughter go anorexic. Or would he? He didn't have parents. Is that what parents do? How do you force someone to eat enough? He had a crush on her at one point. If he was honest with himself, he would admit he still did, but she doesn't like him at all.

Then the door opened.

Their sensei was a tall man who wore a mask on the lower half of his face, covering his nose and mouth. His headband covered his left eye, like an eye patch on a pirate.

"Team seven?" he began, "Hello, I'm-"

"LATE!" Sakura interrupted, red-faced and angry.

"Hmm. Meet me on the roof." He said as he formed a symbol in his hands. A breeze picked up in the room as leaves materialized and flew with it. The leaves surrounded him and eventually obscured him. After a moment, they dematerialized, revealing that he had disappeared with them.

Moments later, on the roof, a bright, tree covered terrace, the team met. If one was to observe the ordeal, they would say none of the students seemed particularly interested in the team itself.

"Now that you're all here, we ought to have some introductions…" Kakashi started. For a whole thirty seconds, no one said anything. Sasuke stared into space, Sakura stared at Sasuke, and Naruto stared at his notebook. "I guess… I'll start then" Kakashi finally finishes.

"Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I like… dogs. I dislike… you guys… and I read… literature… as a hobby. My dreams… well, lets move on. How about you, Sakura?"

"Umm… my name is Haruno Sakura and I like… umm…"

Evidently she was having some trouble attaining the courage to say it.

"Well, I dislike... uhh… Ino-baka. Yeah. I guess. I like to walk in the forest. My dreams… umm…"

She blushed and looked at Sasuke once more.

Despite the implied subject of her inner desires, what Sakura was referring to was not, in fact, Sasuke. The troubling thing for her is, in fact, that she doesn't know what her dreams are, as do many set on a track to where they know not. All of them lacked the disillusionment most Ninja packed on daily, and so it was completely understandable that they didn't know where or what they wanted out of life. It was also completely unacceptable, but it had to be so, or else who would propagate the current system?

Who would, as Kakashi would put it later to his colleague, subject themselves to the life of the Ninja willingly? Evidently, the answer is only one so naïve as to have been taught by their home and culture that it was the life of freedom, romance, and above all, excitement.

Those in Naruto's time pushed themselves towards the sad truth in the hopes that these promises would be fulfilled, but it was, and would always be, for naught. It is crucial: the place the home takes in shaping the ideology of its inhabitants. But Sakura is not the best conduit of its energies, no. It is Naruto, as will become apparent.

"Right" Kakashi ended. "Alright, how 'bout you, Sasuke."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are plenty of things I hate, but I do not see that it matters, considering there is almost nothing I do like. It seems pointless to talk about "dreams." That's just a word. But what I do have is determination, I plan to restore my clan. And there's someone I have sworn to kill." he said unflinchingly. His eyes quickly darted, for but a moment, to Naruto's face. Only Kakashi noticed.

To intercede on Sasuke's behalf, his decision to kill his brother is in no means for the obvious reasons. To him his family's deaths represented a choice between a life of pained consolation and dreaded normalcy or gaudy preoccupation with his families retribution. Rather than choosing the one that seemed happier, he chose the one that set him apart.

He did not want to be happy. He did not want to be normal. For he did not feel equal to either of these, like the majority of humans, and that his choice was between these two lies and a single, weak truth, led him to simply choose the simple path, for what also scared him was the world. So it is not vengeance Sasuke wants, though if you asked him, surely he would tell you so. Truthfully, he would tell himself this same lie, for in the simple truth is perhaps the worst lie of them all: that his roll was what he wanted.

But there was something else. Something, like his motivation, he had not yet admitted to himself. A strange… yearning… that made him feel only too uncomfortable. Puberty had set in, and, instead of being some kind of equalizer like he thought it would, it only made him feel stranger. One day, perhaps, it will come to the front.

A silent moment passed. "Well," Kakashi again interjected, "I was waiting for the rainclouds to appear, but I guess that premonition was off… Naruto, finish us off here."

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I like flying." A smile grew on his face, and suddenly his brooding and airheaded teammates were no longer so dislikeable. "I dislike… I don't know. One day I want to fly freely. My hobby is trying to fly freely."

It is not a well-known fact among his classmates that Naruto is such a flying fanatic. Luckily, perhaps, for the Jinchuuriki is not better off known to be eccentric. Normalcy, as impossible a concept it is, is the best protection for public enemy number one.

"Well, by first impressions, I'd have to say…" Kakshi said, his eyes crinkling in enjoyment, "I hate you all."

As each of the eyebrows on his new team raised half an inch and some glares began, he continued. "We will have a test of sorts tomorrow. Meet me at training ground seven at six A.M. And don't bother to eat. You'll probably just throw it up later."

Before a single protest could be said, the man had disappeared in a maelstrom of leaves. The three teammates looked at each other for a moment before averting their eyes. None were friends, though Sakura certainly wanted to be friends with Sasuke so she could feel acceptable. Naruto wasn't interested in the whole farce. He wanted to go and fly, as he usually did. Sasuke wanted to stop feeling uncomfortable and go some quiet place to brood.

To each their own, and as the three teammates walked away from each other, Kakashi, observing them from a tree, sighed. Rather than tell their teams the importance of teamwork, most of the Ninja instructors forced them to either take the initiative or go back to the academy. Those too disengaged to listen to lectures on the importance of teamwork but engaged enough to pass and fight were not what they thought to be Ninja material.

Yet the best ninja in the world worked alone. The first sage, who was said to have gifted the world with Chakra, worked alone. Such power can only be tempered by individuals. Teamwork is not strength. It is survival. This is not to be opposed, for it is certainly called for in Kakashi's line of work. A simple means to gain independence.

This "team" hopefully, in the mind of Kakashi, would not fail. He had a stake in two of the students: Sasuke, because of Kakashi's kinship to his uncle, and Naruto, because of Kakashi's kinship to his father. He did not want to fail them like had others.

Such was his obsession. His failures have haunted him since the fateful day Obito died. He wants to redeem himself, but no success will do so, unknown to him. The only path of redemption is serenity, which he hasn't yet mastered. In this school a peasant trumps him. But he can't accept it. He is not forgiven. Not yet.

I hope, perhaps, that you see the irony that, of the four team members, the only one who truly has figured out some measure of contentment is the most incompetent of them all. Happiness is not connected to success, as your culture would have you believe. Nor is it connected to a "grand" purpose or a bitter duty. It, like all things rarely attained, proceeds from a place I cannot say, for I do not know. This is the great question of life. Maybe I have helped you answer it. I hope so.


End file.
